The Golden Stranger: Redux
by MegaKat
Summary: Kidnapped, Usagi lays dying after a week of brutal torture. Untrackable by the Senshi due to An and Ail's magic, she has no hope of rescue, and makes a last request to the silver crystal: to enter the dreams of the Golden Warrior- a hero that helped her protect the city for a year-and confess her love for him before she dies. COMPLETE REWRITE OF THE FIRST TGS IN A 6 PART SERIES!
1. Chapter 1

_**(semi) Important Author's Note!**_

 _ **(don't worry, there's a story below it all haha, it's just a long AN to explain the hows and whys of TGS Redux and what to expect)**_

 _ **Heya! What's up, party people!? I'm baaaaaaaack. Ok, not really. Not permanently. Due to the prodding of several people (and I do mean quite a few), I am posting this story on FFN and not just on AO3. Not just because I kind of feel like it belongs here—because seriously, this was THE story that started it all for me here, and I'm not counting BDC. I mean this was THE story that started the path of my whole headcanon for my version of the Saiyans. The purring, the language, the pull, the beast, all of it. Like them or hate them, all of those elements got started because of The Golden Stranger, and I may not have named them all in TGS, but the seeds for the ideas were definitely planted with this story. And seriously, let's back up a moment to the like them or hate them comment I just made. If you hate my stories, then why are you *still* wasting your time reading them? Go! Shoo! Go read something you actually enjoy and stop pestering me with your retarded anon reviews! You're not wasting my time at all since I don't even read them—you're just wasting yours!**_

 _ **So, with all of that said, this version of The Golden Stranger is going to be refreshingly different from the first one and I'm really very excited about it! :) People are going to be mostly in character in this story (I'm talking about Vegeta and Usagi, especially, it took me a couple years before I really realized just how much OOC I was writing them, and I'm sure yall can forgive me since I actively worked to improve that issue over time). Not only that, but if you've been reading my stuff since the beginning, you know how much my writing style has changed, evolved, and ultimately improved. So if you loved the original TGS, you're going to adore this new, rewritten TGS series.**_

 _ **Did I just say series? Oh my, why yes I did! Simply put, Redux is not going to contain storylines, plots, and get-togethers for all of the pairings. Redux itself is ONLY going to focus on Moon and Stranger. Yes, Redux will have the rest of the Senshi and the Z-warriors in the story, but the story won't break away from the main storyline to focus on them. That's what I mean by a TGS series. Along with TGS: Redux, there will be TGS: Blue, TGS: Red, TGS: Gold, and TGS:Green(bean)… and yes, there WILL be a TGS: Redux 2, which will center around Mirai Trunks. And out of all of these stories previously mentioned, 3 of the pairings have changed! Yup! Completely different pairings, and I'm positive that any longtime fans reading this intro can immediately guess one of them (*cough*Nappami*cough*)! Also in Redux and all its sister stories, updated DBS canon has been added. Yes, I said DBS. Not DBZ. I'm talking SSJBlue, Beerus, Whis, Vados, Champa, 12 Universes, 12 possible versions of Earth and Vegeta-sei, etc. I'm gonna be throwing it all in… except for Mai. I like her, but I'm probably not going to use her because I have an amazingly good idea for TGS Redux 2 and I don't want to give that up.**_

 _ **Ok, I think that about sums it up! To all of yall that actually read all of that, you're better than me. I don't think I can do that to even proofread it, but to be fair to myself, I'm working on like, fourteen stories all at once right now. So, enjoy the story! I will be posting all of Redux here on FFN, as well as its sister stories, since this is where it all started and this is where it belongs. It'll also be posted on AO3 as always. For those of yall that don't know about AO3, it's archiveofourown dot org, and it's a wonderful place where people don't whine or get all PC about smut, and butthurt fanboys that can't seem to understand the definition of "fanfiction" are told to go to FFN (here) if they're going to be whiny little bitches about fanfiction not being canon. Because, um… if anyone hasn't noticed, fanfiction *isn't* canon. If it was, it'd be DBZ or DBS. It'd be written by Toriyama if it was all canon. And I'm definitely not Toriyama. I'm Native American and in my 30s. I'm not Japanese and 10 days older than Christ. I'm also super fucking broke because I have kids and no matter how much extra I make, my kids'll still bleed me dry and make my wallet cry for mercy. If I haven't made it clear by now, I own nothing and this is fanfiction. If I was as rich as Toriyama, I wouldn't have to work a day job and about 7 or 8 different freelance writing things online as well as publishing my own books.**_

 _ **OH! SHIT! I forgot the shameless advertising!1! I am publishing shit on amazon, yall! So if you want more info, PM me and I'll be thrilled to link you to Wanted Man, my novel, and my pen name where I publish my smutty as fuck shorts!**_

 _ **More shameless plugs: AnaFrost, MoonMageGoddess, SeleneAnadyomene are all great writers! Go hit them up if you haven't already! Also, one of the reasons for my comeback? AquaTonic's back and she's rewriting Snatched, one of my fave super-original stories of all time. Seriously, yall, she's really, really good.**_

 _ **Last but NOT least, these guys are really good, too, and they write straight-up DBZ fics. They're actually a really awesome lady and dude that are together, and Angst Cow came and stayed with me for several days and we had a fucking BALL hanging out, even though I'm actually boring as dried paste IRL. Angst Cow's partner/bf/fiancé is Over8000, and both of these writers have 100% permission to use my Saiyan Language. They've also helped contribute to it, both directly and indirectly (which means they asked me to come up with words they needed and I did), and because of them, the Saiyan Language Dictionary has gotten a MASSIVE fucking update on my google drive, and after I post this right here to FFN in a minute, I'm going to post the updated Dictionary on FFN as well.**_

 _ **Whew. I'm done. No really, I mean it. I'm finally DONE yacking yall's ears off. Done for one chapter, anyways. So, without further ado… I bring to you… The Golden Stranger: Redux. The way it should have been, and with 9000% better smut!**_

" _Hey, moon goddess."_

 _Cracking her eyes open against the light of a golden ki illuminating the walls of her prison, Usagi blinked them in utter disbelief before the image of the Golden Warrior blurred due to the tears filling her eyes. "Stranger," she whimpered, "you… you came for me?"_

 _She couldn't see him anymore, the light around him simply hurt her eyes too badly after a week in the dark, and Usa was forced to shut them tightly as she felt his large, sword-calloused hand pushing her filthy, disgusting hair out of her face. "Of course I did," he whispered insistently in reply, his voice as tender as his fingertips as that strange, comforting, purring sound—a sound he'd only made a handful of times before, and only during the last few months—filling the room along with the light from his ki. "You really think I'd leave you here to die? That I wouldn't turn the entire fucking planet upside-down searching for you?"_

 _"No," she replied hoarsely, "but… but I thought that no one would find me. But you…"_

 _"I did," Stranger finished for her. "Moon… I'll_ _ **always**_ _find you," he promised as he gathered her up in his arms, carefully handling her as if she was the most fragile, precious thing in the world… as if she was the most precious thing in_ _ **his**_ _world. "I love you," he breathed against her lips before pressing a brief, gentle kiss to them. "I love you, Moon, and I'll never leave your side again, I swear it. Now, let's get the hell out of here. Sound good?"_

 _"Stranger… I lo—"_

"NOPE! NO MORE OF THAT, MOON BITCH!"

Combined with the screaming right in her ear, the lash of the whip and the crack it made as it flayed some more of her flesh from her back jerked her right out of the only comfort Usagi had left to her, and she shrieked in agony. Or rather, she _tried_ to shriek—her voice box had decided on the second day that enough was enough, and with a searing, tearing feeling in her throat as she'd screamed bloody murder in reaction to having a fingernail ripped off, she'd been reduced to screaming silently, her mouth opened wide to let it loose, though only air and a whisper were the only things anyone heard.

"Well, I see your larynx is still on vacation," the male voice to the right and above her sighed in annoyance. "That's such a fucking bummer! The only thing that got me off more than making you bleed was listening to you scream, you know that? Sis!? Hey! SIS!" He called out into the darkness while the blonde lying on the nasty floor of a control room in the city sewer cried in shallow, shuddering breaths, silent all but for a labored wheezing and a wet, crackling sound that came from deep in her chest. "I know you're there and I'll just keep shouting until you answer me! DAMN IT, AN, ANSWER ME!" He yelled after a full minute of waiting silently.

As Usagi absently wondered for a moment what the crackling sound in her chest meant and she tried in vain to grasp at a whisper of a memory from her current anatomy class, she heard a silky, feminine voice reply from the shadows—a voice she hadn't heard in what had to be at least a day. Maybe more… hell, maybe less. Time was strange when one was being tortured around the clock in an eternally lightless prison, with no means of telling the time.

" _What_!?" That smooth voice sighed, the voice of a woman that was wearily humoring a persistent, spoiled child. "Don't tell me she's dead… wait, no. I can hear her breathing. Sounds like she's going to die soon, though," An added in mild annoyance.

"What? Really!?" Her brother asked in a mixture of surprise and disappointment. "Damn it! But I'm not through playing with her!"

"Ail," she replied patiently, her heels clicking on the wet concrete as her voice drew closer, "if you don't want your toys to break, you really ought to not play with them so roughly. Besides, we need her dead, anyway. It's the only way we're going to get the ginzuishou out of her… if she was telling the truth, that is." An had already counseled her older brother-slash-lover on the drawbacks of torture several times, but she loved being right more than pretty much anything else, so she figured one more round of 'I told you so' couldn't hurt matters. "After all, if you beat someone long enough, they'll tell you the sky's red if they think it'll make you stop. You really should have listened to me and brought her Senshi down here, too, instead of just killing them. Then you could've been positive that she was telling the truth."

"Her Senshi weren't even helping her fight anymore!" Ail protested for the millionth time, just as he had whenever An had brought up the drawbacks of torture. "I told you, Sis, they didn't care about her anymore, and she probably felt the same way! The only person we could've _possibly_ used to get any information out of her would've been that Golden Warrior guy!" He finished indignantly in reaction to the hot, boiling jealousy he felt whenever he thought about the blond warrior that had been running rampant around the city with Sailor Moon. "Chiba Mamoru doesn't even care about her anymore! He doesn't care about anyone except himself and that bimbo he's been dating in America!"

"Phhht, why are you yelling at me about it? _You're_ the one that wouldn't take my advice, Ail. _You're_ the one that decided that beating the information out of her would be more effective than just asking her to use the ginzuishou to heal the Tree of Life. _You're_ the one that had to get all fucking jealous when you saw her with the Golden Warrior—and because of _you_ , the Tree of Life is going to die… unless we can get the crystal out of her body. And if the tree dies, _we_ die. So lose the tone, dear brother. I'm sick and tired of hearing it when this was completely _your_ bright fucking idea! Now… _why_ in the gods' names did you yell for me? I was _trying_ to take a nap!"

"I thought she was trying to say something while I was questioning her," he lied smoothly, choosing not to comment on his sister's accusations in favor of getting what he wanted. "But I can't hear her because of her busted voice box. I want you to drop the spells that are keeping the ginzuishou from healing her… for… I don't know, about a full day or so. Just long enough for her to get her voice back."

"We don't even know for sure if she has it," An reminded him with a roll of her eyes.

"An, don't play stupid," Ail huffed with a roll of his own eyes towards her. "This is a brilliant idea and you know it. The ginzuishou will try to heal her if you temporarily cancel out the spells—if she has it, that is. If she was lying, then we'll know it for sure if there's no improvement to her voice or any of the wounds I've inflicted."

It was a good idea, but An would be damned if she'd admit it, especially after Ail had gotten them into such a mess that could leave them dead in a matter of days. She didn't like Usagi—she never really had, for obvious reasons—but even through the possessive jealousy she felt for her brother, she'd seen the sense of approaching Sailor Moon to ask for her help… rather than beating her to death to procure the crystal that would heal the steadily dying Tree of Life.

However, what was done was done, so An waved a hand to dispel the carefully woven containment spells she'd constructed after Ail had abducted Usagi from her college—spells that had kept the ginzuishou from fully healing its carrier.

At least, that was what she and her brother _thought_ , anyway. In truth, the ginzuishou _had_ been healing Usagi… but only at a snail's pace and a fraction of its usual power, and the moment the spells were lowered, it glowed brightly within her chest, its light temporarily blinding both of Usa's foes with its intensity.

"Goddamn it, I'd forgotten how fucking _bright_ that thing can be!" Ail complained as he backed away into the shadows to join his sister.

"You and me both," An agreed. "Come on, set a couple Cardians to keep an eye on her. You should rest," she sighed as her love for her brother overcame her anger with him. He had botched everything, yes. They would likely die along with the Tree of Life because of his rash actions, yes. But even with all the blame she'd directed at her brother, he was all she had. Just as she was all he had… despite his persistent, possessive feelings for Sailor Moon. "We should both rest. We need to conserve our energy."

"I gathered some from her while she dreaming," Ail offered as he grasped his sister's hand. With guilt in his eyes for his impetuous, selfish blunder, he gave her nearly all of it, along with a tender kiss to her lips. "No," he insisted when An opened her mouth to protest and tell him to keep more of it for himself. "I'm fine. I took some off of her late last night," he lied. "I will come and take a nap with you, though. It's not like she'll be able to escape; even if the crystal's healing her as fast as it's able, she's so weak that it would take _days_ for her to gain enough strength to escape."

#######################################

As Ail was kissing An and then leading her to the Tree of Life for a nap, Usagi was fighting for just enough consciousness in order to communicate with the ginzuishou. _No,_ she told it weakly as it immediately began to work its healing magic on her, and Usagi felt a maddening, healing itch encompass the entirety of her back. _Don't. Just let me die. Please… please… just let me die._

 _Princess, you are needed,_ the crystal protested calmly. _There are those that love you, those that would be broken-hearted if you died._

 _Stranger…_

 _Stranger most of all,_ it informed her soothingly. _You may not have seen it, but I have. He loves you. He loves you with all his heart, and if you die, I have no doubt that he will take his own life after exacting his revenge on your enemies._

Usagi didn't want him die—it was the last thing she wanted in the world, next to the idea of Stranger in any kind of pain, physical or emotional. But she was so tired. So very, very tired… and death… death would be a blessing at this point. Death would be a release from her torment, from the pain of her broken legs, arms, and ribs… and the tearing sensation she still felt whenever she tried to scream or speak above a whisper. Death would be freedom. Death would be sheer, total bliss in comparison to lying face-down in her own bodily fluids because lying on her back was so painful that she would faint from the agony. Death would mean an end to a week of starvation, an end to being forced to drink the filthy, disgusting water that she'd refused the first two days, only for her survival instincts to finally force her to drink it in huge, greedy gulps as Ail and An had laughed at her, had informed her that there was surely some sewage in the dirty bowl that the former of the two had held to her parched, cracked lips. Death would mean a release from the tightness in her chest that had nothing to do with six broken ribs… and everything to do with exposure, her damp prison, the mold growing on the walls, and the sewage that flowed approximately thirty feet away.

 _Death would mean never seeing him again, princess. Death would mean never feeling his arms around you. Death would mean never holding him, kissing him, or confessing your love for him. Death would mean never hearing him confess his love in return._

 _I know,_ Usagi replied brokenly, sobbing silently as she clung to the thought of declaring her feelings after over six months of admitting to herself that she was deeply, irrevocably in love with him… as she clung to the hope of hearing the same in return.

But she couldn't do it anymore. She just couldn't. He had no idea where she was, and because Rei had been out of school sick on the day she'd been abducted after her afternoon classes, the Senshi probably hadn't even known she was missing for at least a day. Usagi wasn't stupid enough to believe that Ail and An had killed them, but she did believe An when she'd overheard the woman telling her brother that there was no way for the Senshi to sense the ginzuishou's resonance. She'd used some kind of spell to keep anyone from sensing her in that manner… and of course, Usa had forgotten to take her henshin broach and her communicator on the day they'd kidnapped her.

Rescue would never come, and Usagi knew in her gut that the only way she'd escape was under her own power. She'd known that since day one… and Ail had gleefully broken her legs after the first escape attempt. He'd broken her arms after the second, when she'd nearly dragged herself to a ladder to climb out.

Even a full day's healing wouldn't be enough to give her the strength she needed to escape, and Usagi felt an unexpected calm wash over her as she thought of the only regret that she would die with. _Silver crystal… we both know that there's no getting out of this,_ she whispered sadly. _Please… I beg of you… don't heal me. Instead, would you use that energy to fulfill a last request? Please,_ she added weakly when the ginzuishou didn't answer right away.

 _Yes, Serenity,_ it finally answered dutifully, though its tone was mournful. The princess was right, unfortunately; the crystal could heal her throat, her pneumonia, and mend her broken bones and her back about halfway during the allotted time… but the chances of rescue were slim to none. Healing her would only prolong her agony. Healing her wouldn't be a kindness… it would be nothing but cruelty. _I'll do anything you ask of me, you know that._

 _Take me to him. Let me tell him. Please… don't let me die with my only regret left unresolved._

 _Princess… I'm sorry, but An did not dispel the shield. I'm unable to teleport you anywhere._

 _I know,_ Usagi replied with a ghost of a rueful smile. _I'm not stupid, you know. Take my mind to his, crystal. If he's sleeping, I can enter his dreams. I can see him one last time._

 _You need to be asleep for this to work, Serenity,_ the crystal reminded her. _Shall I put you under?_

 _Yes… and if you can, add a spell to keep me under, no matter what. Let me die dreaming of him… please, crystal. Let me die happy._

There was a prolonged hesitation from the ginzuishou, and Usagi assumed it was simply reluctance to let her die, unaware that the all-powerful, sentient artifact inside of her was doing as it was told. It was weaving a spell around its princess, a spell to keep her fast asleep no matter how much Ail beat her, no matter how much he screamed right in her ear, no matter what kind of new, horrible methods of torture he tried to use on her.

But it wove two extra bits into the simple spell: one, a thread woven in with the rest of the main threads of the spell, a thread that would give Usagi nothing but wonderful dreams about Stranger, even after he'd woken. She would stay with him. She would die happy.

The second bit that the crystal wove into the spell was a condition that Usagi didn't need to know about—a condition that the silver crystal knew was pointless, but without it, the crystal didn't think it could just let Usagi stay asleep and die. Because if rescue _did_ arrive, and Usagi remained asleep with no means to revive her…

 _I'll let you die happy,_ the ginzuishou promised gently, surrounding Usagi's mind in its love for her. _He'll sleep soon, princess… go to him. And then… sleep with him. Forever._

 _Thank you,_ Usagi replied as she felt happiness, hope and love fill her to the brim for the first time in what felt like an eternity, and she sensed herself drifting off to sleep as her mind was pulled off towards a bright, golden star burning in the distance… that star was a life force that could only belong to one man, and the last Lunarian fell asleep with a peaceful smile on her face as she felt his familiar warmth drawing closer. _Thank you._

 **R &R and I'll go ahead and post the second chapter! And aren't you thrilled that there's no nineteen mile long AN on the end of this thing!? No worries, I won't do that to yall on the other chapters of Redux, that was pretty much a onetime thing! Love yall, mean it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**No, yall aren't imagining it, I AM posting this on FFN as well as AO3. Like I said in my lengthy AN on the first chapter, this story has a special place in my heart—it is the** _ **first**_ **, the story that started everything—and by all rights, this rewrite of TGS belongs on FFN in its entirety. So I will post it here as well as on AO3, but only TGS and its other series parts. Enjoy!**

As his hand slowed in shoveling bites of his late supper into his mouth, Trunks emitted another huge, gaping yawn, covering his mouth when his mother gave him a look that told him to mind his table manners. "Sorry," he muttered before taking another bite.

"That's the eighth yawn in less than ten minutes, boy," his father remarked between bites. "I know I didn't work you _that_ damn hard in the gravity room. You going soft?"

"No, Dad," Trunks huffed. "Just…" He yawned again, his eyes full of confusion in reaction to his inexplicable bout of sudden yawning. "…sleepy all of a sudden," he finished once the yawn had ended, setting his fork down on his plate after studying the remaining food for a few critical moments. He suddenly didn't feel hungry anymore; he merely wanted to sleep to the point that it was crossing over from want into desperate need. He was completely and utterly exhausted, he felt weak from head to toe, as if his body was ready to shut down with or without him and simply give him the finger, as if to say, "fuck you, buddy, we're doing this with or without you… so get on board or prepare to hit the floor." As he thought all of that over, a sudden, unexpected, light punch to his shoulder broke him out of his daze to wearily turn his head towards his father and rub at his heavy eyelids. "Wha?"

"You dozed off for two minutes," Vegeta snorted.

"Did not," Trunks mumbled.

"Yeah, you did," his sister giggled as she extended the phone in her hand towards him to present him with a snapshot of himself, eyes closed, head nodding forward, mouth hanging slack-jawed and wide open, his entire face drooping mere inches from his mashed potatoes. "Go to bed, you dork. You're clearly exhausted."

"Can't," he sighed, "I was gonna patrol. I haven't seen her in a week and I haven't been able to shake this feeling that something's wrong."

"You haven't been sleeping," Vegeta stated flatly, hiding his very real concern for his son and the woman that Trunks should have already mated months ago… if he'd only grow a pair and confess the fact that he was deeply, irrevocably in love with Sailor Moon. And thanks to Trunks's line of questioning nearly a year ago, Vegeta was almost completely sure that they'd felt the pull as well. "If you've felt like something was wrong for a whole week, why haven't you hunted her down?"

"Because we don't know each other's true identities, Father. I've told you this. Other than the moon hanging in the sky, I have no way at all to tell where she's at… or if she's even in the city at all," Trunks sighed worriedly before yawning yet again and sullenly picking at his food with his fork. "Trust me, if I had a single clue as to where she lived, I would've already flown to her neighborhood and scoured the area for her ki."

It went without saying that he'd tried his best to track down her ki already, so Vegeta merely nodded as he thought long and hard about how to help his son find the moon woman. It was unlike her to go so long without appearing in the city—his family might think that he didn't pay attention to them or give a shit about their personal lives, but much to the contrary, Vegeta paid very, very close attention to everything they said, their habits, who they hung out with, and what they did in their spare time.

And for the last year, Trunks had been patrolling the city almost nightly with Sailor Moon, fighting crime and saving innocent people. Vegeta had even followed them at a distance a few times over the last three months in order to take his measure of the blonde that had ensnared his son, and after seeing her fight and the way they both looked at each other when they thought the other wasn't paying attention, he'd been satisfied… and Vegeta was positive that it was only a matter of time before the two of them were mated.

Of course, however, he hadn't counted on his own son's stubbornness—something he'd most definitely gotten from both of his parents—and a persistent, shy awkwardness with Sailor Moon that could've _only_ been inherited from the crown prince of the Saiyan race. He wasn't awkward with any other female, oh no… just the one he'd felt the pull for, just as Vegeta had been awkward with Bulma after looking her in the eye for a little too long on Namek. He, too, had fought destiny for a good long while, but in the end, destiny had won. It would win with Trunks and Sailor Moon, too… eventually.

"You know what college she goes to, right?" Vegeta questioned as he watched his son's eyelids drooping for a second time. "Trunks!" He snapped, "wake the fuck up! If you've been having a bad feeling about your woman, you ought to trust your instincts and go look for her," he continued when his son snapped awake and paid attention. "Now tell me, what college does she attend?"

"Um… Juuban," he recalled after a moment of remembering a single conversation where she'd slipped up and mentioned JCC. They were always extremely careful not to mention anything about their personal lives, and other than a handful of slips, both of them had done extremely well in being careful not to reveal anything that might give away their true identities. "Yeah… JCC. She was late one morning and she said she ran for five solid minutes to get there before her math professor locked the door."

"Do you think you can sense her ki when she's a civilian?"

"No, I've tried that already," Trunks sighed. "I can't even get a bead on the ginzuishou—usually, I can sense it no matter what time of day it is. She'd strangle me if she knew that I could track it, but I actually have a pretty good idea where she lives, Father." He sighed at that and shook his head worriedly. "I haven't picked up anything from the silver crystal in seven days, though. Absolutely nothing at all… it's like she's dropped off the face of the Earth."

"Something's wrong, then," Vegeta stated. "You go sleep; you're exhausted. _**No**_ , Trunks," the prince added almost gently, his voice laced with deep concern for his only son when Trunks tried to protest. "I know you're worried about her, but you're useless when you're this tired and we both know it. If you want to be of any help to her, then you need to take care of yourself first. Go sleep, and I'll wake you in five or six hours. _Then_ you can go out and hunt for her."

"Your father's right, Trunks," Bulma chimed in as she read her mate through the mating bond and sensed Vegeta's deep worry for both her son and the woman that Trunks had fallen in love with. "Tell you what… you go sleep, and your father'll go out and see if he can sense anything. How does that sound?" Rolling her eyes, Bulma told Vegeta plainly through the bond that she wasn't stupid—the prince had already planned on doing exactly that, and he should know better than to think for even a moment that he could hide it from her. After being mated to him for twenty years—almost exactly to the date of Trunks's first birthday—she could read him like a book.

"Stop giving me that fucking look, woman," Vegeta huffed, "and I _might_ go look for her."

"Uh-huh. Sure, Geetz. Whatever you say."

"Thank you, Father," Trunks murmured gratefully, giving Vegeta's shoulder a squeeze as he stood from his seat, just as his father muttered something about Bulma and pushy women in general. "Really, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help. You'll wake me if you find anything, right?"

"Probably," the prince huffed. "Go to bed. You look like shit, son."

"Yeah, yeah… I'm going. But please, Dad, promise me that—"

"I'll wake you if I learn anything important," Vegeta snapped, rolling his eyes as he watched Trunks's slip half-shut. The boy was clearly fighting sleep, and he watched Trunks with a critical eye as he nodded and left the room, dragging his feet before finally stopping at the couch and falling onto it heavily. _Bulma, I've been watching him all week, and he's barely slept a wink, even when he's tried to. He's been too worried to sleep. But now, suddenly, he's dozing on his feet?_

 _Vegeta,_ Bulma replied calmly, though she was mildly surprised by his usage of the bond rather than speaking aloud. _His exhaustion's likely just caught up with him. That's all._

 _No,_ Vegeta muttered thoughtfully _, the boy's half Saiyan. I know for a fact that he can go a few weeks like that before it catches up with him. I've seen him do it. Whatever_ _ **this**_ _is… it's not natural. Something's wrong… and I want you to keep an eye on him while I go to the city, understand? Contact me through the bond if something's amiss. Changes in his vital signs, anything like that. I'm going to visit an old friend._

 _Oh? But I thought that you were—_ Bulma stopped herself short at that, recalling a tidbit of hilarious information that Vegeta had shared with her about two years prior, and she snorted in amusement despite the gravity of the conversation. _Never mind, I gotcha_. _Sorry for laughing, it's just that the idea of him being all head over heels in love with a woman quite literally half his size… it's fucking hilarious!_

Vegeta couldn't help but agree with her there, his lips twitching up in his signature smirk as he nodded once. _The big oaf's turned into a gods damned sap over her, too. Last time we spoke, he still hadn't fully claimed her. He's terrified of breaking her in half, apparently… even though she's expressed her willingness to try._

 _Oh, come on, Vegeta. It's actually rather sweet of him to be so concerned for her physical welfare. You can't tell me that you never_ _ **once**_ _worried about how easily you could break me if things got out of hand?_

 _No,_ he lied. _I'm a Saiyan prince, woman, and you damn well know it. My control outstrips his by a hundred-fold, if not more._ Truth be told, Vegeta had worried immensely about hurting her the first time he'd given in to the pull, and even more so after he'd ascended to Super Saiyan. Hell, he still worried every time he went through the burning, and he'd probably continue to do so for the rest of his life. "I'm going now," he stated aloud, ignoring the sappy, loving smile on his mate's face, even as he came around the table and dropped a kiss onto the crown of her head. "Watch over our son, Bulma."

"I will, love," she promised as she turned her face up and pulled his down to hers for a slow, tender kiss, sighing in happy surprise when Vegeta cupped her cheek in his hand and didn't pull away almost immediately. Usually, he was so squeamish of displays of affection in front of other people—even their own children—but he kissed Bulma for a full ten seconds before drawing away, ignoring the fact that Bra was watching them with a grin.

"I'll be back before it's time to wake Trunks. Bra… you keep an eye on his ki. It could just be acting funny because he's exhausted, but something tells me that it's more than that."

Holy shit, if Vegeta was asking his daughter for such a thing, he was definitely worried! "Yes, Dad," she replied instantly, her lips turned down in a concerned frown that mirrored her father's. "I'll call you if anything seems off about him."

"Good girl." And with that, Vegeta ascended to Super Saiyan Blue, another sign of how deeply he was worried for his son—rather than go Super Saiyan or just stay at his base form, the prince had jumped straight to his strongest form in order to fly as fast as possible to meet the warrior he hadn't seen or spoken to in quite a while. True, Trunks's behavior that evening and Sailor Moon's week-long absence could be nothing but a coincidence, but when it came to the pull, the Prince of All Saiyans had long abandoned the notion of coincidences. When it came to the pull, everything that happened between both effected parties was linked. Everything between them had everything to do with their destined pair-bonding… and _nothing_ to do with coincidence.

###############################################

"Stranger!? _**Stranger**_!"

The man in question spun around in complete and total confusion, blinking at his lack of surroundings after losing his fight to stay concious long enough to make it to his room. No, he'd just barely made it to the couch, had collapsed upon it, and then everything had vanished. _Everything_ … leaving him in a void of white that reminded him of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber… only there _was_ something there in the void.

Or rather, it was some _one_ , and they were running towards him from far away, calling out a name that only _one_ person ever called him. " _Moon!?"_ He yelled out in confusion. His first reaction was a shred of panic, but once he'd assured himself that his hair was gold and not lavender, he flew to her without another moment's hesitation as soon as he recognized the mixture of joy and terror in her voice. Joy because she was always thrilled to see him, no matter what… and terror because… well, he honestly didn't know, but he was definitely going to ask her about it, along with a line of questioning about where in the hell she'd been for a week and why she hadn't contacted him somehow. Unless… unless this _was_ her attempt to contact him. Contacting him because she was in trouble. That would certainly explain the terror in her voice… and it only served to send a shiver of fear down his spine as all the possibilities pounded through his brain.

That only made him move even faster to embrace her, to assure himself that she was unharmed, and when Trunks wrapped her tightly in his arms, his tail wound around her waist and he buried his face in her hair to draw in her scent and assure himself that he couldn't smell blood—hers or anyone else's. "Moon… what's wrong?" He asked as he finally withdrew his nose from her golden tresses and looked down at her. She was smiling and her cheeks were flushed with pleasure, but her eyes were sad, mournful, and brimming with tears, and when Trunks frowned and wiped at a tear that escaped, she threw her arms around him tightly, her face buried in the black tank top he always wore when he fought crime. Yes, something was definitely wrong. He could feel her tears soaking into his shirt, and the woman he loved was crying openly in huge, wracking sobs, trembling against him, her fear peppering her typically sweet and innocent scent. "Moon… what's wrong?" He repeated in a terrified whisper, the exact same words brimming not only with terror, but with an intense worry that he no longer bothered to hide. No longer _could_ hide. Something was wrong with Sailor Moon… very, _very_ wrong…

…and it scared the living hell out of him. In all his twenty-one years, even after all the battles, all the fights, all of the wishes on the dragon balls to bring back his family and friends after they'd died time and time again, Trunks had _never_ been so afraid in his life.

"Stranger, this isn't a dream," she choked out as she drew in his scent, her senses heightened due to the knowledge that this would be the last time they would speak. This was her last chance to tell him the truth, her last chance to confess how she'd felt about him for the last six months. "No, please… just hold me," she added meekly when he tried to draw away, "and whatever you do, Stranger, please _**don't**_ wake up. _Please_ , try your best not to, ok? It's important that you stay with me here for as long as possible."

"Alright," he agreed gently, bending his face down to her hair a second time to do the same thing she was doing, breathing in her light, innocent scent as her fear receded in reaction to the soft, reassuring purr filling the air around them—something he'd given up fighting against six months ago after her stupid asshole of a boyfriend had broken up with her and she'd come to him in tears. Now he purred for her practically all the time, but she'd never complained about it, and after a few weeks, Trunks had ceased being embarrassed about it, especially after she'd confessed that she rather liked the sound, that it made her feel safe. "Moon… are you using the ginzuishou to do this? To talk to me in my sleep?" He asked as he ran his fingers through her hair and recalled his unnatural, sudden exhaustion at the dinner table, his fingers idly travelling down the vulnerable line of her spine as his eyes took in and appreciated the white, regal dress she wore and the feathered wings that started at her shoulder blades and trailed to the floor.

"Yes. There were spells cast around me to keep me from using the crystal, but they dropped them so that the crystal could heal me. I begged it not to heal me, though… instead, I asked the crystal to let me speak with you one last time, because… because I…" Usagi hesitated then, swallowing hard as she summoned all of her courage.

This was it. This was her last and only chance to tell him the truth. To tell Stranger that she loved him… and that she was sorry that she'd only found the courage to do so as she lay dying. "It's fulfilling my dying wish," she whispered as she turned her face up to his, cupping his cheek in a porcelain hand as she simply gazed into his eyes and memorized his strong jaw, his high cheekbones, the odd, deep, beautiful shade of his blue-green eyes and the way her stomach always flip-flopped when she looked into them for more than a moment or two… and finally, his pink, kissable lips. Lips that she'd ached to kiss for so long, but had never summoned the bravery to. This would be her last chance to look at him, and Usagi's lower lip trembled as she memorized his features, her thumb tenderly tracing his jawline as she summoned her courage and told herself that he deserved to know that she loved him.

"Stranger… I love you," she whispered as he remained stunned into silence by the news that she was dying. "It was the only regret I had… not telling you that I loved you. That I've been in love with you for a very long time. I should have said it sooner, but… I was a coward," she breathed sadly. "I'm so sorry, Stranger. Please… please forgive me for never telling you… and for waiting until now to tell you."

Courage, cowardice, and forgiveness were the last things on the mind of Trunks Briefs as he stared into the eyes of the only woman he'd ever loved, and his purr ground to a halt as it was replaced with an angry growl. "Where are you and _what the fuck_ is going on!?" He snapped out angrily, fighting the urge to shake her until her teeth rattled. "I haven't seen you in _seven days_ , Moon! What happened!? _Where are you!?_ You said that they had spells up so that you couldn't use the crystal—who is 'they' and _**why**_ _haven't you used your communicator!?"_ The sight of her eyes filling with more tears and the sound of a heartbroken, hopeless sob eased some of Trunks's fury as well as his vice-like grip on her, and he relented when she choked out something unintelligible between a series of sobs that made her shake from the force of them. He also renewed his grip on her when her knees gave out due to her terrified shaking, and Trunks fell to his as he held her tightly to him with his arms and his tail. "Shit… Moon, I'm sorry. Please, forgive me and calm down, angel… shh… it's ok. I'm not angry with you. I'm… I'm fucking _terrified_ ," he confessed. "You can't die. _I won't let it happen,_ do you understand me?Please just tell me where you're at and I'll come and get you."

"The… the sewers," she choked out, "but… but there's _miles_ of tunnels, Stranger, and I don't know where I am. I'm dying… and the crystal promised that I wouldn't wake again, that it would let me sleep… and that I'd dream of you, even after you've woken and the psychic link we're sharing for the moment is broken. It promised that it would let me die happy… that I'd die dreaming of you," she repeated, her cheeks reddening as his purr resumed. Only this time, that comforting sound was mixed with something else… a pattern she'd only heard twice before. A pattern that made her feel warm all over and think of sweet kisses in the dark, a noise that made her itch to feel his hands on her bare skin, and her own on his.

Despite the fact that his beast was touched—and encouraged— by the fact that Moon's idea of dying happy meant dying in his arms, Trunks's mind was racing at a breakneck pace, trying its best to create an effective rescue plan. "Moon, tell me what happened. Please. I have to at least _try_ , you understand that, right? Wouldn't you do the same for me? Wouldn't you refuse to leave me for dead, no matter what?" He questioned insistently.

"You… you said that you love me," Trunks added softly, his eyes full of emotion as they bored into hers. "Moon… sweetheart… I feel the same. I love you," he confessed breathlessly, his heart pounding a mile a minute as he said the words he'd ached to say for a year. "I've been in love with you since the moment I met you… and when you love someone, you don't just accept that they're going to die. You fight with everything inside of you to save them. _R'sha_ … I'll fight for _you_ until my last breath, I swear it on my tail." With that, Trunks finally did the one thing he'd wanted to do more than anything for a year; he bent his head to hers and kissed her firmly, his tail winding around her waist and a soft, shuddering groan escaping him when she returned it ardently and let loose a quiet whimper of surrender, her hand at his lower back pressing his groin tightly to hers in a clear offer of everything she had… everything she was.

"I love you," he breathed against her lips when he finally broke the kiss, proud of himself for such a display of willpower when he reminded his beast that there would be plenty of time for making love to her later, and that right now, time was of the essence. They needed to make every moment in this white void count. Hadn't someone said in one of his classes that an hour in a dream was equal to a full night's sleep? "I love you and I'm not going to let you die, Moon. Now… do you know where you were when—"

"I was at school," she replied, cutting him off as he wiped gently at her tears and she leaned into the hands framing her face, deciding to allow herself to feel the fragile hope that he just _might_ be able to save her. If _anyone_ could save her, it would be Stranger. "JCC. I'd finished my afternoon classes and it was getting dark. I was attacked by Ail, an enemy I'd fought as a teenager. I thought that he and his sister had turned over a new leaf and gone home. They'd been watching me for weeks, waiting for me to slip up… I forgot my communicator, the one I wear on my wrist, and my henshin broach. He attacked because I couldn't transform or call for help."

"Did they say what they wanted?" Stranger asked, resting his forehead to hers as his hands absently petted and soothed her and he resisted the desire to kiss her again, to strip her down, to distract her from the fear that had yet to completely leave her scent or her eyes.

"The crystal, but… it's inside of me. The only hope they have of getting it is by killing me, and even then, I don't think it's a sure thing, which is why I'm still alive. I… I told them that when… when Ail…" Usagi stopped there and swallowed down tears, her hands tightening into fists where they clutched at the cloth covering his back, trembling as she vividly remembered the pain lancing through her with every lash of the whip, every cut of the knife, and every blow of his fists.

"Shhh… calm down, moon goddess. It's not important right now. What's important is telling me anything you can remember about your location, and telling me what's changed in the last few minutes. I'm positive you would've contacted me already if it was possible, right?" He asked, rewarding her with a short, tender kiss when she nodded. "So, what changed?" He pressed as he broke the kiss and nuzzled her shoulder, his purr strengthening as his beast filled his mind with images of Trunks sinking his teeth into the creamy flesh warming his mouth.

"They need the crystal to save their own lives," Usagi answered slowly. "I… I think that they're hesitant to kill me on the off-chance that my death won't give them what they want, so An dropped the spells that were keeping the crystal from effectively healing me, even though it _was_ keeping me alive without their knowledge. But yeah… that's what changed. There's a chance that they'll die if I do, and they know it. That and… and Ail… he saw me with you and… he figured it out. That I'm in love with you. He might have even figured out that you're in love with me," she added with a blush and a slow, shy smile when Stranger murmured something in that strange, guttural language that he sometimes spoke in when he was angry or frustrated... only this time, he was whispering in her ear, and his tone sounded anything but angry… but there _was_ a hint of frustration there. The sexual kind. And it curled her toes, even as she continued to explain. "Ail was in love with me a long time ago, and now he's jealous. I heard An saying on the first day that her plan was to ask me for my help. She was yelling at Ail for beating me unconscious… I was faking that I was still out cold at the time. He finally got her to agree to his plan, since what was done was done and couldn't be taken back. That he was positive I'd never help them after what he'd done… and An… during her first turn to watch me while Ail rested, she told me that she'd decided not to let me live. That she'd rather risk both her and Ail's deaths than take any chance of Ail letting me live… letting me live under the condition that… that I—I'd be his.

" _No_ , Stranger," she whispered as she embraced him tightly in reaction to a quiet, possessive growl, "I'd never submit to him. An doesn't know, but… Ail already made that offer. On the first day, after An… after she cut me out of anger. Out of jealousy. Ail saw what she'd done to my face and he relented. He offered to kill her and let me live if I'd be his. I told him to shove it up his ass," she recalled, her lips twitching up in a ghost of a smile as she remembered her own surprise at her sudden bravery. She'd thought of Stranger in that moment— she'd thought of how she loved him, how she'd dreamed about him being her first. How he'd figure out who she really was, how he'd appear in her room late at night and seduce her with his hands, his mouth, and a quiet, heartfelt confession of love as she surrendered to him. "I told him that I loved _you_ , Stranger. _You_ and _only_ you… and that you were the _only_ man I'd ever submit to. Whenever I've managed to sleep," Usagi whispered shyly, her cheeks coloring brightly, "I dreamed of you, Stranger. You'd rescue me and… and take me with you, and… and you…"

Trunks withdrew from the temptation of her creamy shoulder then, purring seductively as he took in the sight of her red cheeks and the love in her eyes, smiling when she didn't continue, clearly too shy to finish her sentence. "Angel, as soon as I rescue you, I'm going to do exactly that," he stated slowly, his voice soft, dark, and full of promises of slow lovemaking, of claiming her over and over until he'd fulfilled every single dream she'd ever had of him. "If you'll have me, Moon, I have every intention of mating you. Of making you mine."

Usagi found herself nodding before she could even consciously direct her head to do so, maintaining eye contact with him and relishing the way her stomach fluttered enticingly anytime she held his gaze. "Stranger… I want that right now," she whispered. "Please… just in case I—"

"No," he replied firmly, cutting her off before she could continue. "I _will_ save you, Moon. I swear it. What?" He asked incredulously when she gnawed on her lower lip nervously and looked away from him. "Don't tell me that you don't believe me?" Trunks had to admit that that hurt him deeply, that her lack of faith in him hurt him in a way he'd never been hurt before, in a way he hadn't thought himself capable of being hurt. "Moon…"

The heartbreak in his voice drew Usagi's eyes back up to his, and she shook her head before kissing him soothingly, the fingertips of both hands tracing his jawline tenderly. "Stranger, I know you'll come for me. I know you will. But… I'm dying," she reminded him gently. "I don't know how much time I have left, but I _do_ know that it's not much. I know you'll come for me… but I can only give myself a fifty-fifty chance of being alive when you get there." She swallowed hard then, debating whether or not to give him the full, hard, bitter truth, but it only took her a few silent moments before she decided to tell him—and to show him—just how bad off she was. "Stranger… that fifty-fifty estimate… it's overly-optimistic. No, _please don't_ ," she insisted when he opened his mouth to swear yet again that he'd save her. "I… I didn't want you to see me this way, but… you need to know. You need to know how bad it is. It would be cruel of me not to prepare you."

"Moon, what do you—" The last word in the sentence stuck in his throat when it tightened in horror; the beautiful, golden-haired angel kneeling against him had transformed into the image of a filthy, broken woman that no longer even resembled his intended. Both of her arms and legs were clearly broken, turned at awful angles that made him nauseous to look at. Every inch of her face was black and blue, her left cheek caked in blood from where An had cut her deeply—more than deep enough to scar.

That wasn't even the worst of it.

Her clothes were in tatters, her breasts visible through the tears that had clearly been caused by knives, and slashes littered her bruised and battered torso, and the dark marks beneath her breasts were clearly a result of multiple broken ribs.

Trunks fought tears back the entire time he examined her broken body, but when she turned to show him her back, he lost the ability to keep them at bay and choked out a sob as he gingerly turned her around again to face him. There wasn't a single centimeter of flesh on her back that hadn't been flayed by a whip—honestly, there wasn't even a single centimeter of flesh _remaining_ on her back. They'd whipped her to the point that he'd seen muscle through the layer of filth that covered every bit of her, turning creamy skin and golden hair brown, all but for the clean tracks on her face where her tears had washed it away… only to reveal hues of black, blue and the coppery reddish-brown of dried blood.

"I'm dying," Usagi whispered, clutching at her throat, wincing at the pain that came with speaking. "It hurts to breath, Stranger… and… and there's this sound…"

"I hear it, angel," he breathed as he trembled in a mixture of rage, fear, love and helplessness, squeezing his eyes shut when he noticed her hands. Hands that only had two fingernails left out of ten. The other eight had clearly been ripped out. "You have pneumonia. I… I'll take every senzu bean in the house with me when I come for you," he promised. Yes, that was it. Focus. Focus on a plan. Focus on a way to get her out, a way to save her and make it all better. "I know that the senzu aren't as effective for you because you're Lunarian, but I have plenty. Four or five should fix everything, sweetheart." He kissed her then, weeping silently for her and for the pain she'd endured, wishing in vain that he could somehow switch places with the woman he loved as she parted her cracked, bloody lips for the tongue tracing the crease of her mouth.

"Stranger," she breathed between kisses, summoning all of her courage for what she wanted to say next, offering him a weak smile when she waved a hand to return her form to that of a clean, beautiful Lunarian princess, sighing in contended bliss when he immediately kissed her again, his lips hungry and demanding. "Please… make love to me," Usagi whispered with every ounce of longing she felt for him. "Just once… just in case… I don't… make it," she continued as his kisses grew more and more ravenous with every moment that passed. "Yes," she encouraged him as he tugged at the bodice of her gown, freeing her breasts and baring her to the waist before easing her down onto her back, pinning her feathered wings between her own body and the floor of the void. "Don't stop, Stranger," Usa whispered, looking him in the eye and cupping his face in her hand when he rose up to remove his tanktop and he tossed it aside.

Her fingers travelled south to stroke and explore the definition of his chest and stomach when he came down on top of her and resumed the eager, demanding kisses that were setting her on fire, and when he pushed her skirts to her waist and ground his cock against the juncture of her thighs, Usagi moaned into his mouth and arched into the sweet friction.

That moan encouraged him even further, and Trunks continued to kiss her as he slid a hand up a supple, bare thigh, slipping his fingers beneath the white lace of her panties to stroke her. He found her soaking wet for him, and he purred in a mixture of love, seduction, and desire as he pushed his fingers into her, only to pause when she winced… and when his fingertips sought out and discovered exactly _why_ she'd winced. "Moon goddess," he sighed mournfully, "why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it doesn't matter," she replied truthfully, her heart in her eyes as she tried to pull him back down to her, only for Stranger to resist and shake his head slowly. " _Please_ , Stranger," the moon princess insisted tearfully. "Please don't stop. I want this. I want _you_. I don't want to die without knowing what making love with you feels like. Please?" she whispered weakly when he sighed and shook his head again.

"Angel… I want to. I do," he assured her, "but there isn't enough time for us to do this properly. I'll only hurt you. It probably won't feel good for you at all, even with a mating mark, unless I prepare you for a good, long while beforehand." Not only that, but Trunks had only started making love to her out of a desperate need to erase the scent of her fear and the hint of it in her eyes, to try to somehow make everything better for her, even if only for a little while. "Besides," he sighed as his common sense won, "when I do make love to you for the first time, I want it to be real. No, I know this dream is real," he added when she opened her mouth to tell him exactly that. "I mean, I want it to be _really_ real."

"But… but Stranger… what… what if," Usagi choked out as she lost the ability to hold her tears back any longer. "What if the scars are bad and… and you d—don't want—"

"Shhh, moon goddess. Shhh… it's ok. You're beautiful. I swear it. Trust me _, cha'dra_ ," Trunks whispered as he lowered his lips to her throat and trailed soft, warm kisses down the long column of her neck, over her collarbone and to her shoulder, where he grazed his teeth over it eagerly. "Moon, you could be the ugliest woman I've ever seen, and it still wouldn't change how I feel about you. It would never change the fact that I want you so badly that it physically hurts to resist the temptation of having you."

"No, it's _not_ ok!" She sobbed. "Why can't you understand? You've seen what they've done to me!"

Trunks silenced any further protests with a kiss, and rather than keep it brief, he began to trace the crease of her lips with the tip of his tongue after a few moments, letting loose a quiet, demanding growl when she tried to speak and didn't immediately open to him. He changed that problem quickly by sliding a hand down to her pert behind to pull her tightly to him, and as he ground his arousal against her, she gasped, allowing him the access he sought.

As he kissed her senseless while trying to convey through it every ounce of love he felt for her, Trunks reminded his beast that time was of the essence, and that if they found her before she died, there would be plenty of time for more than just kissing once she was safe. If she was sure that she wanted him as her mate, that is. Honestly, Trunks was positive that he'd be incapable of making love to her without mating her, without establishing a mating bond and—

When Trunks broke away sharply and stared down at her with wide teal eyes, Usagi could only crack hers open and gaze up at him in confusion, her blue orbs hazy and still tear-filled as the fingers that were clutching at his bare back continued to absently play against his warm, tanned skin. "Stranger?" She finally managed. "Please… don't stop."

Her arousal had turned her voice low and sultry without her knowledge, and Trunks smiled slowly at the idea he'd had and he wasted no time in presenting it to the half-naked angel in his arms. "You said that we're sharing a psychic link right now, yes?"

"Yes, the crystal created it so I could talk to you. It's not too hard to enter someone's dreams, even less difficult if we know each other. When someone's awake, however…" Usagi shrugged at that, then let loose a sigh of happiness when Stranger closed the two-inch gap to kiss her once more, arching into a calloused hand with a gasp of pleasure when it cupped a breast and his thumb traced the nipple. "Stranger…"

 _Gods help me, I've waited months to hear her say my name like that… please… please let me retain enough presence of mind to focus on something besides how good it would feel inside of her._ "We don't have much time, Moon," Trunks murmured against her lips, "so I'm not going to beat around the bush—this dream is real, as you said, which means that you can feel me as well as I can feel you, yes? Good," he continued when she nodded breathlessly and she boldly kissed him again in a clear invitation to take her, only for Trunks to draw back after a few moments. "You can kiss me all you want in a few hours. Just listen. My people are aliens. I explained this to you after the tail incident."

Blushing hotly at his mention of the nefarious tail incident during the first month they'd known each other, Usagi didn't trust her voice well enough to talk without squeaking in embarrassment, and simply nodded. Yes, she knew he was a half-human, half-alien hybrid, but Stranger had never told her what race his father was, since Usagi had warned him that she might know of that race from her past life; since Stranger had told her that full-blooded specimens of his father's race had distinct features, Usagi knew she'd be able to immediately guess who his father was if she ever happened to run into him randomly. It had been an overly-cautious decision on both their parts, but they'd felt that it was necessary during a time when they'd wanted to keep their identities secret.

And how had the subject of his race come up in the first place? By grabbing his tail, no surprise. Stranger had scooped her up to carry her to a robbery in progress, and Usa hadn't been paying attention, thanks to her handheld video game console. She'd grabbed at his belt for balance, which had turned out to be a tail, and had found herself pinned to the air conditioning unit in the middle of the roof they always met at. Pinned by a ridiculously strong warrior that she was already crushing for _hard_ … a warrior that was fully aroused and pressing his groin intimately to hers.

As Stranger had fought every instinct screaming at him to take the woman he'd felt the pull for, Sailor Moon had stared up at him with wide eyes, trembling, apologizing endlessly and swearing that she'd had no clue that his belt was a tail, and that she'd never, ever, ever do it again.

"My people are the Saiyans," Trunks informed her now, "and we have a custom called a mating bond. It's a bite to the shoulder when two people mate with each other—marriage, only with the bonus of a strong psychic bond between partners." Sailor Moon was naïve and a little airheaded at times; Trunks knew this, but he also knew that she was smart, and he nodded firmly when he watched realization dawn in her eyes. "With your permission, Moon, I'm going to put how real this dream is to the test."

A glimmer of hope had lit inside of her at Stranger's initial insistence that he would find her no matter what, but now that flickering light within her had grown into a strong and steady blaze. "You'll be able to track me with it… won't you?" Usa asked, finally daring to find the courage to really, truly hope to live more than a day or two longer… and not only mere survival, but to live with Stranger at her side for the rest of her life. "Do it," she breathed when he nodded.

"I don't know how well this'll be translated over into the real world, Moon, but… you need to be sure. This is permanent… and to be honest, even if there _is_ a way to reverse it, I'll never let you go. _Never._ You'll be _mine_. We'll be pairbonded for the rest of our lives."

"Do it, Stranger," Usagi replied with a soft, tender smile and an emotional kiss to his lips. "I love you. I've wanted this more than anything for a long time. Do it."

Trunks had already planned on tracking her by focusing on the bright, silver ki of the ginzuishou, but if this worked, he would double their chances of rescuing her alive, especially if An changed her mind and returned to cut Moon off from the crystal once again. If this worked… then he'd be able to find her anywhere on the planet for the rest of their lives, no matter what. This would never happen again, though, period—because even if it didn't work this time, the moment he found her and brought her home, Trunks was going to mark her as his.

"I love you, Moon," he whispered as he tenderly grazed his lips over her bare shoulder. "My angel… my moon goddess… my mate," he sighed happily before clamping down on the flawless skin and sinking his teeth deep.

There was a sharp mixture of pain and pleasure when his Saiyan canines pierced her flesh, but Usagi's cry had nothing to do with the pain and everything to do with the raw ecstasy that rolled through her like a tidal wave, turning her vision white and swamping her senses so that all thought of anything but Stranger was wiped from her mind. "Stranger," she whimpered when he began to suck at the punctures, his purr louder than she'd ever heard it as his dexterous fingers trailed up the inside of her left thigh and slipped inside of her panties for a second time. "Oh… oh, that… that feels… _Stranger_!"

That soft, helpless cry of his name brought forth a groan from Trunks, but rather than succumb to his pounding desire to take her and consummate the pairbond, he concentrated on the soft, shaky moan she emitted with every suck to her shoulder and every leisurely caress to her swollen clit, releasing the former of the two only to whisper in her ear. "Come for me, sweetheart. Come for me… and then I'll come for you," he promised huskily, chuckling sexily into her ear at the double meaning. "Come for me," he whispered again after a slow lick to her bleeding shoulder, his fingers now firmly rubbing the sensitive bud within her folds as he decided to clarify what he'd meant by his unintended double entendre. "Then I'm going to come and find you and make you mine in every way."

"I love you," Usagi responded breathlessly before lacing her fingers through his golden hair and leaning up to kiss him passionately, her hips bucking when she felt his tail slip inside of her panties to press into her virgin channel, teasing her and stretching her carefully without breaking her hymen. Only another minute passed before she finally surrendered to the mounting pleasure and moaned into his mouth, her legs wrapping around his waist as she bucked twice in his arms and then stiffened head to toe, arching against him and moaning his name in rapture, her head rolling back to expose her throat to his lips and teeth. "Stranger… Stranger, _please_!" She whimpered when he withdrew his fingers but didn't draw her panties down to seek his own pleasure.

"I told you, _cha'dra m'yo_ ," Trunks whispered soothingly, "that I'm going to find you before making you completely mine. I only got you off because my father told me what the mating bite does to the person receiving it… ok, _and_ because I wanted to, if I'm being fair," he admitted with a tiny grin. "But right now, the clock is ticking. The more time I spend here, with you, the more likely I am to find you dead… and I swear on my tail and to every god and goddess that if I _do_ find you dead, I won't continue to live in a world without you. So I suggest that you ask your crystal to heal you enough to keep you alive until I reach you."

 _Serenity does not wish it. She wishes to sleep,_ the ginzuishou chimed in sadly.

"And I wish for her to live," Trunks ground out. "You can't do both?"

 _That is Serenity's decision._

Shutting her eyes as she pulled Stranger down to her and buried her face in the crook of his neck, the Lunarian trembled in fear at the idea that he might not be able to find her, despite the mark and the strange, new feeling of someone else's mind pressing against and tangling with hers. "Promise me, Stranger… promise me that you'll find me. Please… please don't make me suffer anymore. I hurt so badly and I just want it to be over… but I love you. I trust you… so I'll do whatever you tell me to do."

"Silver crystal, if you can keep her asleep no matter what to spare her anymore suffering, _and_ you can heal her at the same time, do it. And flare your power brightly so I can find her quickly, just in case the mating bond doesn't work outside of the dream, or is still too new to be effective. If you can do that, I can be there in under an hour."

"Really?" Usagi asked, hesitant to allow the small flame of hope inside of her to burn any brighter, paranoid and terrified that she'd wake somehow to more torture, or that An had erected spells to keep anyone out… or even more horrifying, that she'd erected spells to make Usagi invisible to anyone trying to help her. "You… you think that you can actually get to me in less than an hour?"

"Yes. If I have a clear means of tracking you, I won't have a single problem finding you. Hopefully, the halfbond will translate over into reality outside of this dreamscape. Even if it only does a little bit, that'll be more than enough to track you easily. I won't have to rely on the ginzuishou on the off-chance that An'll come back to cast another binding spell over it," he finished confidently. "I _will_ come for you, Moon. I swear it on everything I could possibly swear on."

"I trust you," Usagi whispered against his lips before kissing him gently. "Just please, Stranger… _hurry_."

"Oh, I will, make no mistake about it," he promised yet again before sealing it with one last kiss, frowning when he finally broke away, reluctant to leave her. _She won't die,_ he reminded himself. _I'll see her in less than an hour, just like I promised._ _ **She. Won't. Die.**_ "Ok, sweetheart… I'll see you in an hour. Ginzuishou? Can you wake me up, now?"

 _Yes._

No sooner had it replied, Trunks felt himself being tugged backwards, away from his mate, who was hanging onto his hand, clearly reluctant for him to leave as well. "I love you, Moon," he said before letting go of the fingers clutching his.

"I love you, Stranger." That was the last thing he heard, echoing in his mind as he woke from the dreamscape.

Little did either of them know, but Trunks would not only be there in less than an hour... he'd be bringing Hell itself with him.

 **Heh… and Hell itself doesn't JUST mean Trunks. He's gonna have help. Oh, and I won't have the internet for a couple days, yall. It's the price I pay for well… not paying the price. I'll have money on Monday, though, to pay the price!**


End file.
